Housing question

[ohyeah36.livejournal.com]

Hi there!
I am fairly new to davis_square. I am a current NYC resident looking to move to Davis Sq sometime around August 1st. I walked around the neighborhood when I was visiting this past weekend and totally fell in love with the area. I've checked the tags and I had a couple of questions I was hoping y'all could help me with.
Since I'm from NYC, I'm no stranger to outrageous rent prices--to me, 1600 for a 2 bedroom is a steal! If I was looking for a 1.5 bed around the Davis Square area, is 1400 a reasonable price? I'm hoping to be about 10-15 minutes from the T (closer is better, obviously, as I probably won't have a car). I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about where to look for listings. I'm checking Craigslist, obviously, but I know in NYC, it's hard to find a legitimate listing--a lot of them are scams, or brokers just looking for you to call them. On that note, any broker recommendations would be great.
I've also heard that it's better to look early for an apartment in the Boston area. I'm used to looking no more than a month before I want to move, but I get the impression that I should be starting to look soon. Is it hard to find available apartments over the summer?
I appreciate the help in advance and look forward to hopefully being a Massachusetts resident sometime soon! :)

Comments

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

My wife and I had one weekend in Boston to find an apartment. We probably saw close to 20 different places, some from Craigslist, some with realtors. The best experience we had was with John Lowenstein at Red Line Real Estate (http://www.bostonapartments.com/redlinerealestate.htm). He asked lots of relevant questions and quickly matched up our needs to available apartments. We ultimately chose a great place within a 10 min walk to Davis Square where we have rented for close to 3 years.